Timing is everything in pharmacy leadership

Several years ago, a mentor of mine asked me what I thought was a rather odd question at the time. He asked, “How long do you want to live?” I don’t know about you, but this was not something that I had given much consideration to before. I may have said, “as long as possible,” or something of that sort, but what my mentor was asking me to do was to pick an actual number.

So, I thought about it for a few minutes and picked a number. Then something interesting started to happen. I started to look at things differently. Most notably, I started to look at my diet and physical activity differently. In full transparency, I chose a number about 40 years in the future. When I did that, I realized that some of the things I was doing most likely wouldn’t get me another 40 years. I was going to have to put down the carton of ice cream and put on my running shoes.

Perhaps this seems a bit simplistic. Consider this: what if I had decided that I only wanted to live another 5 years. Do you think that would have influenced my decisions as well? Sure, it would!

We all know that our hindsight is 20/20, but how good is our foresight? How well are you able to see what is coming down the road? As we develop as leaders, this is something that we must improve on. 

How many times have you had an encounter with a patient for a chronic medication who asks you something to the effect of “how long will I have to take this?” 

Early in my career, I recall a man coming into the pharmacy who had just been diagnosed with high blood pressure. He presented his prescription and asked me how long he would likely have to take this medication. Oh, what my hindsight teaches me here. Full disclosure, I was not a good leader back then. If you would have asked me about my leadership skills, I most likely would have responded that I was above average. Who knows? That may have even been the right answer. But the reality was that I was not a very good leader at the time. This man came into the pharmacy with a metaphoric balloon of hope. He was looking for me to put a little helium in his balloon to give him a bit more hope. You know what I did? I took a metaphoric pin to his metaphoric balloon of hope and popped it! I simply said he would likely take this medication the rest of his life.

I didn’t see then what I see now. I can look back and see someone who was looking to be led well, and I was not up to the challenge. This man was looking to be led well, and I missed the opportunity.  I missed by a country mile.

How adherent do you think this man was with that medication? 

When we lead is so important.

There is a strong likelihood that this man, and countless other patients like him, would need to be on some treatment for the rest of their lives. But what if I had led him better? What if I had explained that the medication could control his blood pressure and add years to his life? What if I had asked this man the question that my mentor would later ask me? How long do you want live? I could have then connected his answer to the medication. Do you think that would have affected his adherence?

Leaders help someone at some time go somewhere or do something. 

As you continue to develop your leadership skills, be sure to pay attention to the timing of when you lead. 

We will continue this topic when next we meet.

Until next time –

Jesse McCullough, PharmD

Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn